


A chill to freeze your bones

by Silmarwen



Series: Dimiclaude Week 2020 [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe – Gods, DimiClaudeWeek2020, Dimitri makes some poor choices, Height Differences, Imprisonment, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Very loose elements, Winter, myths, some beauty and the beast elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21975637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silmarwen/pseuds/Silmarwen
Summary: Claude's always been interested in the gods, so when he finds the domain of one, he can't help but walk in without a second thought.Dimiclaude Week Day 5: Fragile/Touch
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan
Series: Dimiclaude Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589623
Comments: 14
Kudos: 155





	A chill to freeze your bones

Gods are difficult beings, they influence the world is such curious ways, the weather, emotions, luck. Claude finds them intriguing, even if he finds the idea of calling upon the gods to solve your own problems childish and pointless. Why ask for help when it’s more fulfilling to do it yourself? No one’s going to learn to stand on their own if they constantly ask for help.

He wants to learn more about the gods, so when he happens across one’s domain, who's he to not take advantage of what’s given to him on a silver platter? Well, for one he’d have been smarter to plan and prepare instead of walking straight in without a second thought. It’s cold and barren, snow as far as the eye can see. And snowy places never agree with him. He shivers, sneezing as he walks through a biting chill that clings to him, trying to drag him down to an early grave, his braid freezing to his face.

Familiars of the god approach him from time to time, trying to get him to turn around after introducing themselves. Ingrid berates him, Felix insults his intelligence and Sylvain asks about warming his bed in a trade for leaving. Claude asks them which god rules this domain, but they won’t give a clear answer.

Frowning, Claude continues deeper in, cursing the chill when he can no longer feel his feet. Eventually, predictably, he trips and expects a face full of snow. Instead, he falls into large, cold arms. The familiar were all warm which can only mean one thing. _The god._ He thinks, looking up.

A hulking man lifts him several feet off the ground as he glares at him. A blonde mess of hair, pale skin, one icy blue eye with the other covered by an eyepatch, black armour and a long blue cloak accented by wolf fur around his shoulders. Attractive but also terrifying. He’s like nine feet tall too, unfair.

“Why are you here human?”

“I wanted to meet you, oh mighty god of this domain.” He plays it cool, suave, even throws out his typical charming smile.

“Lies.” If looks could freeze a man to the gone, the glare he gives Claude would be the one.

“I mean it. I just want to see what makes you tick. Can I stay?”

“You are a fool asking for death.”

“I’m not afraid.” Claude gets a little more serious in his tone, if sweet words won’t work, he needs to show his resolve. “Tell me who are you then, your Godliness?”

“I am the god of revenge, loyalty and winter. The name you humans gave me long ago is Dimitri.”

Well the winter part is obvious. “Give me a month, you can kick me out after that.” Claude offers. He’s human and harmless, no one will even notice him.

Dimitri doesn’t move, just holds him in the air, thinking. Him familiars come over, whispering their own thoughts in his ear. He passes Claude to Ingrid after a few minutes of hushed deliberation. “Take him to the mansion, keep him warm, humans are fragile and freeze easily.” Next, he speaks to Claude directly. “You are not allowed outside into the Storm and are to avoid contact with me.”

“Can do.” He agrees, yelping a little when Ingrid whisks him away, transforming into a pegasus and taking to the sky.

* * *

The mansion is huge, intricate and cold, very cold. It fits His Godliness, winter is cold, revenge is cold, makes sense even the mansion is an ice palace.

They’re keeping him in a large room with a fire, that they’re all horrible at caring for, so he must maintain it himself. He does appreciate all the furs they give him to bury himself in. Does that mean animals live in his domain or does his familiars shed their skin like snakes?

Many of the familiars are quite friendly. Apparently, the ones he met earlier are Dimitri’s oldest familiars. Ashe is the youngest, kind and sweet. Mercedes is like a mother, inviting and soothing. Annette is adorable and reminds him of a little sibling, though he’s never had one to truly know. Dedue is firm, dutiful, loyal, suited to always being beside Dimitri. He likes them, they’re all interesting and fun to chat with.

He keeps poking his head into everything and anything in the mansion, trying to run into Dimitri as much as possible. He said to avoid him but if he’s likely to only be here a month, he’s going to spend as much time around this god as he can.

Currently, Dimitri is watching him from the upper floor, an easy find.

“So, do you always lurk around here?” Claude starts up a conversation, though it’s more like talking to a wall. “Do you always mope around like this?”

Dimitri turns and leaves.

“This’ll be fun.” Claude lets out an empty laugh. Getting him to talk back might be harder than he thought. And the last thing he wants to do is anger him. He’s heard about the god of revenge, quick to anger and violent. He could smite him for just touching a door. Bur Claude’s an expert of skirting danger and pulling off the impossible. There’s been no challenge that he doesn’t take head on.

* * *

Their second interaction is later the same day. Claude is busy examining an old clock, fascinated by its mechanism even if it’s stopped working long ago. If anyone can fix it, it’s him. He doesn’t even notice Dimitri walk down the hall.

“What are you doing?”

“Well your Godliness, I’m trying to see if I can get this ticking properly.” He says, head stuck inside the frame as he keeps fiddling with the gears.

He’s forced back into his room an hour later, as night falls. The nights are mercilessly cold here. Claude learns he cannot stay out of his room when the sun falls below the horizon, when the Storm begins and even the inside of the mansion freezes over. Magic keeps his fire going at night, exhausting magic. He feels a little bad for the Mercie and Annie who maintain it, stuck in the heat of his room all night long.

He fixes the clock the next morning, to the surprise and amusement of everyone else. Dimitri almost changes his expression from molten rage to just normal angry. Nice to see his face isn’t frozen like that, that'd be such a waste.

* * *

The next time Claude sees him is after he finds the library. It’s been a few days and he’s eager to learn all he can once he finds the monstrous room stacked to the brim with books. So eager he loses track of time, not even aware the sun is about to set.

As he looks for another book on gods helping mortals, a hand grabs him and lifts him up, like a ragdoll.

“You are supposed to be in your room.” Dimitri growls, grip tight on his waist.

“I just lost track of time. And that's starting to hurt.” Claude keeps his voice calm, even when he thinks he's gonna snap in half from the force Dimitri is putting on him.

He doesn’t miss how quickly Dimitri eases his grip to something oh so gentle.

Dedue takes him away to his room after that. He hopes this doesn't ruin things for him, he's still got a lot to learn until they make him leave.

* * *

It’s on their fourth encounter that things change. It’s been a week and Claude find himself reading in a small part of the library. He’s made a little nest with a bunch of furs, focused on a book in hand, completely oblivious to Dimitri's presence.

“So, I'm to avoid you but you keep coming to me instead, isn't that a little mean?” Claude eventually speaks up, looking to the god, faking a look of offense. 

“You confuse me.”

Claude smiles and beacons him to come closer. “I’m good at puzzling people.” Dimitri stares at him, not moving an inch. Claude sighs, standing instead, already missing the furs as he reaches up to touch his cheek, an extremely difficult feat given Dimitri is so tall.

The way Dimitri pulls away instantly is comical.

“Not used to warm hands?” Claude laughs, a genuine smile gracing his face, missing the awe on Dimitri’s face as he tries to control his own giggling. When he looks back at him, he's scowling again.

“Everything is cold here.”

* * *

The month passes, and by some strange luck he’s not told to leave. Claude has a few ideas why though. It’s the same reason Dimitri sticks around him when he’s reading in the library, sitting close enough for brief touches. Dimitri seems fascinated by the warmth of his body.

Sometimes the god is leaning against his back, on his side. The funniest instance is when he falls asleep on his lap. Dimitri’s embarrassed reaction when he wakes up is worth the chill he left in Claude’s legs.

That chill though is nagging at the back of his mind. It’s dangerous. It only becomes clear when Claude wakes up in the library one afternoon, Dimitri wrapped around him, engulfing his small form in his large body. Claude’s own body feels near frozen, if he slept for a little longer, he’d have died.

He quickly leaves, a confused Dimitri slowly waking up as he makes his way back to his room, starting the fire and doing everything he can to warm up. It’s terrifying. Dimitri’s getting too comfortable around him, he’s getting too comfortable with him as well.

“This is bad.” He groans, frustratedly messing his hair, undoing his braid to give his fingers something to fiddle with as he thinks. Dimitri’s quite soft-hearted, once he’s stopped being angry, so Claude’s been relaxing around him, forgetting to put on his mask, his walls starting to crumble. He can’t do this. It’s dangerous, he’s a god, Claude’s mortal. 

He’s never had such a problem with getting attached before, why now? Getting attached now is risky, he could die.

So, he starts holding back. He still reads in the library, still indulges in Dimitri’s desire to touch. He doesn’t reach out himself now though. He starts using his fake smile again, keeping his walls firm. He can’t linger for much longer, he needs to leave soon, he just needs to learn a little bit more.

* * *

He doesn’t get the chance to leave before things take a turn for the worse. Another god shows up, and he’s told to stick to his room. Apparently, this god isn’t kind to humans, one of the gods of pain, illness, death. Claude knows not to take any risks, he does as he’s told, taking books into his room to read while he waits for the all clear.

The last thing he expects is for the god to come looking for him. 

Annette’s delivering him some snacks, walking in and giving him a sympathetic smile as she turns to leave. Opening the door, she freezes and tries to close it again as something radiates into the room. Claude, one of Mercedes’ sweets in his mouth, feels his knees buckle.

“I knew I sensed a human around here. To think Dimitri would be hiding something so fun to play with from me.” A cold voice whispers as Annette tries to get him to leave, cries out as she’s flung into the hall. The god’s smiling as they grab Claude’s throat and he can feel an intense pain spread over his whole body.

He tries to scream but they squeeze down, forcing all the air out of his lungs, leaving him desperately gasping for a breath that doesn’t come.

“So weak and fragile. I always enjoy the chance to kill your kind. You won’t be missed.” They coo, watching as he struggles but between the pain in his limbs and the lack of air, it quickly tapers off to a feeble attempt at simply staying conscious. All that fills his mind is panic as black dots start filling the corners of his vision.

There’s a crashing sound and he hits the ground, cold air finally making its way into his lungs as he gulps it in. Everything feels so cold and painful, he can’t pay attention to the voices yelling around him, everything fading to black. 

When he wakes, he’s in his bed, covered in furs. Mercedes is smiling at him from her seat beside him.

“What happened?” He asks, trying to sit up and regretting the attempt instantly.

“The god searched you out and tried to kill you. Dimitri drove them off. Don’t worry, this happens from time to time, most gods don’t get along after all.” She smiles. He knows this, there’s a reason fighting between the gods is a common occurrence, devastating to anyone caught in the middle.

“How long am I stuck in bed?”

“A few more days.” She tells him, before making him drink something that knocks him out.

He's stuck resting for days. Dimitri never visits when he’s awake, but he can feel the chill of his presence lingering in the room.

Something’s off, they're taking care of him but when Ashe or Annette visit him, they can’t make eye-contact with him. Something’s terribly off, he can feel it. 

He figures out what's off once he's able to get out of bed. The door won't budge. He's locked inside. 

“H-Hey, this isn’t funny!” He shouts, a feeling of hysteria building from deep within, old abandoned memories threatening to creep to the surface. Trapped, he hates feeling trapped. He can't stay. **He can't stay trapped**. 

There's a sound of footsteps and a chill on the wood. “Dimitri? Come on open the door!” His voice cracks, panic in every word. Silence. “Dimitri?” More silence. “Please don’t lock me in here! Please!” He begs.

All he gets his silence. The silent reply to his begging repeats each day. They only enter when he's asleep. And even if he tries to make plans late at night, he falls asleep every time, as if on command. 

It’s been a week and he can’t handle it anymore. He has no choice. He can sneak out the window. There’s snow at the bottom, it’ll cushion his fall. He’s been storing food, he’s ready.

He waits for the Storm to end and sneaks out in the morning.

It’s cold, but the furs he’s taken will keep him warm. He’ll be fine. He's going to miss everyone, but he needed to leave eventually. Dimitri just forced it to be on unpleasant terms.

He walks for hours, it’s cold. He picks up the pace a little. 

Nightfall’s coming too quickly, he needs to make it out of Dimitri’s domain before the Storm hits.

The Storm comes faster then he can walk. Snow blows in his face, pushing him back as he keeps pushing forward to counter it. It’s so cold.

He falls. Panicking, he looks back. His feet are frozen. He’s freezing solid. Fear shakes him to his core. No, he’s going to die here. Freeze to death. This is why Dimitri gave him the condition of never going into the Storm. He’d die.

Maybe, this is what he gets for trying to learn too much about gods.

He swears he can hear something in the wind, but he’s so cold. As his mind starts freezing all he can think is _Dimitri! Dimitri! Help me!_ He doesn’t feel anything when large arms wrapping around him, pulling him up and whisking him away.

* * *

Everything around him feels warm, unbelievably warm. Slowly Claude opens his eyes, finding himself back in his bed at the mansion. How did he get back? There’s someone standing by the fireplace, dressed in red, hair of white and eyes, strikingly lavender and serious. He’s never seen her before.

“Who?” He rasps out, flinching at how weak he sounds.

“My name is Edelgard, I am a god of ambition, determination, conviction. Dimitri called to me for aid out of desperation, I felt I needed to come personally to see what got him so worked up.” She approaches him, expression stern. He feels small in his bedridden state.

“W-Well thanks for saving me.” Claude tries to be polite, calm, not show the terror threatening to erupt from his core. The last god he met did try to kill him after all.

“Dimitri made a grave error in letting you stay. I’ve already told him, once you recover, you must leave.”

Claude nods in agreement.

“These will warm you.” She points to red logs near the fireplace. “I am needed elsewhere.” After that she leaves him alone, exiting with more grace than he’s ever seen.

There’s a long pregnant silence in the room, but Claude can feel the chill seeping in. He glances to the door. “I can tell you’re there.” 

Dimitri doesn’t come in. It takes three whole days before he works up the nerve, walking slowly in as Claude sits up, wrapped in layers of furs.

“Hey, your Godliness.” Claude gives him a smile, not honest in the slightest. Dimitri looks away shamefully. “What, regretting everything now?”

“It was, a poor choice.” He reminds him of a child whose stolen something and wants to apologize but is too afraid of the resulting punishment, deciding to wallow in their own shame instead.

“Well that’s why you have to learn from your mistakes. Anyways, come over here, I’m not going to break instantly and it’s hard talking to you from the other side of the room.”

“You looked like you would…” He pauses, not finishing his thought. “I... greatly underestimated how fragile humans are. I should have never agreed to you staying.”

That’s where Claude disagrees. He does hate that he locked him up, but it was to protect him, scared of his initial near-death experience. And Claude, he doesn’t regret coming. That attachment he tried to avoid, it’s still there, constantly prodding at his heart. “Dimitri, come here.” He reaches his hand up, Dimitri doesn’t move. “Come.” He beacons again, like that first time, way back in the library.

Dimitri holds back, again. Claude doesn’t stop, not even when Dimitri turns to leave.

“Come here.” Claude says again, letting himself smile naturally, small and weak. The god gives in, moving to his side, kneeling so Claude can reach up, touching his cheek. “I thought so, the cold of your skin is so much more comforting than that Storm. I like it.” The light redness that spreads over Dimitri’s face is cute, heartening. Claude let’s the next thing slip through. “I’ll miss it.”

“Claude.”

“Yeah, I know. I need to leave.” Claude keeps his smile on, to comfort them both.

Dimitri leans in to his touch, sighing as he relaxes a little. “Yes, you are right. I need to let you go, it would have never worked.”

“Hey now, who says I can’t visit?” It won’t be soon though, he has plans to follow now, but he will come back.

“Claude.” Dimitri frowns, but he doesn’t pull away.

“I promise.”

* * *

Claude leaves shortly after he’s recovered, and Dimitri begins to wait. It’s not difficult for him though, time passes easily for the gods. But humans, time is so fleeting. Dimitri knows deep down that there’s a chance Claude never comes back, he could forget or die out there.

He waits. There are prayers to him, sometimes he answers them, but otherwise everything quickly returns to how things were before Claude arrived. As time passes, there’s no word from Claude and his familiars easily notice his yearning. They assure him, he’ll come back.

Time keeps passing and Dimitri becomes overwhelmed by the feeling he’ll never see him again.

One day as he inspects the board of his domain, he notices a human slip in and there’s a tinge of something in his chest. He slowly approaches them. They look different from Claude, older than him.

But then they turn to him, to the sound of snow crunching beneath his feet and he knows. His smile, his green eyes, the confidence he has as he starts walking towards Dimitri.

“Claude.” He whispers, fearing he’ll vanish if he calls out too loud.

“Eager to see me again?” Claude smiles, laughing as Dimitri lifts him up. “I’ll take this as a yes.”

“You’ve changed.” He can’t help but marvel at how much he’s changed. He’s filled out, lost the braid, grown a beard. How long has it been for him?

“What do you expect? It’s been five years.”

“Five years?”

Claude hums as Dimitri perches him on his shoulder. “I was busy working on something.”

“Something?”

There’s pride in Claude’s voice. “A safe way for me to stay here. It’s been time consuming, but I finally got it to work.”

“You’re staying?”

“Yeah. I’m not as fragile anymore.” Claude whispers and something bubbles up in Dimitri’s chest.

“I look forward to finding out what you’ve learned.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the Dimitri is tol but also very pure and has no idea how to handle smol, mortal Claude. That's why while he likes touching, we're talking about the most pure type of touching as possible. He's a big soft lion pretty much.
> 
> No, I won't get off my 9 feet tall Dimitri train.


End file.
